The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) of the Parliamentary Opposition claimed that the remarks made by its Executive Committee member, former Parliamentarian K.D. Lalkantha, at the recent May Day rally, which led to controversy, have been misinterpreted by certain parties, including Opposition politicians.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (9), NPP Executive Committee member Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa claimed that the speech made by Lalkantha has been misinterpreted by Opposition politicians after listening to a part of the speech. He also said that Lalkantha has implied the idea of empowering people by decentralising the power given to them but that the idea of decentralising the institutionalised judicial power to the people, cannot be done according to the Constitution. He also noted that Lalkantha wanted to convey the idea of empowering people by engaging them in certain activities, such as ‘dispute resolution', claiming that similar programmes can be seen in many other countries.

During the last May Day rally, Lalkantha had claimed that a future NPP Government will decentralise judicial powers to its cadres at the village level. On Wednesday (8), a tense situation arose in the Parliament with both the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), raising questions in this regard. NPP MP Dr. Harini Amarasuriya was questioned whether this was the opinion of their organisation. In the Parliament, the State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe, stating that Lalkantha had pledged to decentralise judicial power with his Party cadres at the village level, criticised the NPP over its attempts to sabotage the country’s Judiciary. Meanwhile, playing an audio clip of the speech, SJB MP Harshana Rajakaruna also raised the same issue. Responding to the allegations made by MPs, Dr. Amarasuriya said that Lalkantha never mentioned that judicial powers would be devolved to NPP cadres at the village level. “Lalkantha only ensured access to justice for all people,” she said.

Several attempts made to contact the Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, President's Counsel Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe proved futile.